Freiburg with friends

After taking a train to Freiburg, Germany on Saturday, figuring out how to get to the local station by my friend’s house, I was greeted at the station by my friend Danni.  It was great to get off the train an immediately see her smiling face! (I only stepped onto the wrong local train once, after someone had pointed me in the wrong direction.  Fortunately when I asked “Zahringer?” I was immediately told, “no, no, no” and pointed to the real train before the first one left the station.)  We then met up with her boyfriend Johan and dropped my stuff at their apartment. 


We spent the day wandering around Freiburg, which is a delightful town.  The church, which is from the 1200’s, was in part sponsored by the local guilds, so at the bottom of various stained glass windows, there are the logos of the guilds that paid for that window - a stained glass boot for the shoemakers, a stained glass pretzel for the bakers, a pair of scissors, and several other things.  It is quite fun to see.  Not many fancy huge old churches have stained glass pretzels in their windows!  The gargoyles and statues around the outside are much more playful than in Paris too.  (see above picture)  There is a market all around the church, which was closing down as we got there, but we were there in time for me to have one of the local sausages.  The sausage stand sold 10 different types of sausages, but Danni steered my toward the one that is most typical for the region.  Although I am not a huge sausage fan, these were quite delicious. 

We went up to the tower on the hill overlooking the city, which was a good hike up, but beautiful views.  We then wandered the city more. Throughout the city there is flowing water through little channels built into the street.  They are only about a foot wide, 6 or 8 inches deep, and have only about 2 inches of water flowing.  They were originally built centuries ago, to help prevent major fires.  Other cities would have a large area burn down if one house caught fire, but with this, there was always a steady stream of water to every building so they could put out a fire quickly before it became big.  Now, it is used mostly for kids to play in on hot days.  All over the city, kids were splashing on the channels.  Stores sold little toy boats, rubber ducks, etc for the kids to play with in the water.  The other fun thing the city has is the stonework sidewalks. 

All of the sidewalks are paved with stones that are 1 inch by about 3-4 inches.  In front of each business, there is a circle of stones, with a logo made of stones for each business.  A pretzel for bakers, a diamond for jewelers, a book for the library, etc.  These date back to ancient times, but are updated for current businesses, so most are accurate. 

 

On Sunday, we slept in, had a breakfast with many jams, then went to Staufen, which is a cute town just South of Freiburg, which has a hill with the ruins of a castle.  It is surrounded by wine country.  It was beautiful and relaxing up there.  We had a picnic lunch, then juggled a bit in the castle ruins.  We then enjoyed Bioade and Vitamalz which are traditional German beverages, and went back to Danni and Johan's apartment, where they cooked a marvelous Swedish dinner for me (Johan is Swedish).  Meatballs, potatoes with onions, a yummy sauce, salad, and chocolate balls rolled in coconut.   Yum! 

Tomorrow I am off to Rothenburg, the Romantic Road, and Fussen for historic towns and castles!  Yay!